


How to Engineer a Family

by willow_larkspur



Series: Engineering & Programming [5]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Abusive Dursleys, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Black Lily Evans, Book 3: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Desi Potters, Gen, Post-Iron Man 2, shifted timelines
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-04
Updated: 2020-02-07
Packaged: 2020-10-06 18:02:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20511194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/willow_larkspur/pseuds/willow_larkspur
Summary: Years ago, while working on a confidential project at Cambridge, Tony Stark got involved with a married couple. The project ended without completion, and with it, the relationship he had with the Potters. It wasn't until the product of that brief affair showed up on his doorstep that he had ever thought about having kids that he didn't program himself. (Iron Son AU)





	1. Omission

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Magi Silverwolf (Magi_Silverwolf)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Magi_Silverwolf/gifts).

> Legal Disclaimer: I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said whoever that owns the source material. Look, I’m just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn’t going to get you anything but tears.  
Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. There are also references & on-screen child abuse (because the Dursleys are, well, the Dursleys). There’s also mental instability. Feel free to back out if that’s you.  
Author’s Note: Three things should be noted before delving into this. The first is that the timelines have been shifted to bring them in line with each other. The Marauders and Tony are the same age and while Iron Man 1 & 2 have happened, Avengers is still a few months away by the end of this chapter. The other thing is that Sirius’ narration reflects the state of his mind, which is why it’s so scattered. Azkaban did a number on him. As a final note: I made Lily black. While it isn’t specified in this, Lily & Petunia have different mothers.

(^^)  
**How to Engineer a Family**  
Chapter 01: Omission  
(^^)

Remus Lupin woke to screams and crying. The air of the compartment bit into his very bones with how icy it was. He knew this cold, like a lover recognizing his ex. Not fully awake and running on instinct borne of practice, he rose with his wand already in hand and casting a Patronus.

The glowing dragon roared as it materialized from his wand. Its silvery teeth sunk deeply into the shroud of the dementor leaning over an unconscious boy near the door. The dementor shrieked louder than the other children in the compartment were. For all that it was disturbing to see a Patronus being so aggressive, Remus had always enjoyed the fact his Blossom could actually hurt the aberrations. Even after so many years in the Muggle world and working with metahumans, Remus still hated the soul-sucking creatures more than anything he had seen.

Yet this time Blossom seemed to have passed simply aggressive and was headed into murderous quickly. In fact, Remus was fairly certain that the first dementor she had attacked before turning to the second one was being still because it might actually be dead. The second one went down just as quickly in a spray of thick black liquid. It was also in multiple pieces.

Then the dragon settled over the unconscious boy like a real dragon would her eggs. Calm now, Blossom began grooming the boy’s curls, which had been left natural but cut too short to be considered an afro. The scene reminded Remus of how Lily used to do the same to Harry, a fitting memory for more than simply Blossom being inspired by Lily’s Animagus form.

There was, after all, no mistaking the stamp of Lily Evans Potter on the boy’s face. Surprisingly, the small signs of James that had been so obvious in Harry as a toddler seemed to be missing now that boy was a teenager. In fact, Harry looked an awful lot like that Muggle lab partner that Lily had had when she worked at Cambridge, the one who flirted indiscriminately with both her and James.

Remus felt something akin to resignation settle in his stomach, like every time he had realized that James and Sirius were in the middle of yet another prank war. Lily would never have cheated on James, but Remus knew both Lily and James enough to know that Tony Stark had been exactly their type, especially if it was just a casual thing. Remus knew enough about Tony Stark’s notorious playboy years to know that had likely been the case: just a fling with a lab partner and her husband.

He briefly thought of mentioning the idea to the boy, of suggesting that he might still have a living parent out there. But then again, what would it matter? Stark may be turning over a new leaf with this Iron Man persona of his, but barely over three months ago, he was all over the tabloids for getting drunk in the armor at his birthday party and trashing his own mansion. It wouldn’t be right to bring up the possibility when Stark was so reckless, and the boy had years to get settled well with whatever guardian he had been raised by so far.

Blossom snorted at him, as if she was alive enough to have any opinion on the matter.

Sassy Patronus.

(^^)

Sirius Black was confused. Honestly, he knew that he wasn’t exactly thinking straight. Ha! He had never done anything straight in his life! He was the king of straddling the line, a solid three on that Kinsey Scale thing that Lily had been fond of using. Lily! She would be able to explain why the pup didn’t look right.

Lily could do anything, because she was phenomenal like that. It was why they loved her so much, him and James. Not that Lily loved him like she loved James, which was good, because Lily was nice to cuddle but she wasn’t—wasn’t _something_, but Sirius couldn’t remember, not after being around dementors for long. Even in his Animagus form, that took a toll. Being around Lily would have helped, because Lily knew how to fix things, even Sirius’ thoughts got slippery and dark.

Lily was _fierce_ and _elegant_ and _brilliant_.

And _the rat_ betrayed her! Peter was supposed to protect her and James and little Harry, who smelled strange. Sirius remembered how the toddler hadn’t smell like James, except in that way that people got when they were around each other often. James had said it didn’t matter, that Harry was his heir and that was all that mattered. Lily had looked a little sad, a little wistful sometimes when she had looked at Harry, like he was reminder of something that had been enjoyable but had gone away. Like how Remus looked when the chocolate-covered blackberry jammy dodgers were gone and Lily was too busy with Harry to bake any more.

Harry! The _traitorous rat_ was at the school! He was in the same dorm as Harry! The traitor was near James and Lily’s pup! Sirius needed to save him! He would catch the rat and _shake him_—No, that wasn’t right! Lily wouldn’t approve. James might have, because James understood that death was sometimes kinder than what magic could demand, but Lily was _vicious_ when it came to protecting what was hers, just like the dragon she sometimes was. A traitor wouldn’t deserve kindness, not in her books, not when Harry was in danger.

Yet faced with the opportunity to kill the rat, Sirius hesitated. He was angry! The rat needed to _pay_, but Sirius still hesitated. Harry looked scared and angry, but not at the _rat_. He looked scared of… _him_. Harry was scared of Sirius. That wasn’t right. Lily wouldn’t approve. Sirius shouldn’t scare the pup, shouldn’t scare the Prongslet. Sirius searched Harry’s face, wanting to see James again, even in just a little bit.

James wasn’t there to be found. Lily was, in the eyes and the tight curls that were just barely looser than Lily’s had been. Harry didn’t look like James, and he didn’t smell like James. Harry sounded just a bit like that voice who was on the telly so much when Sirius had been staying at that Muggle house, when it was too cold to stay in the caves near Hogsmeade. Harry looked like him, too, in the parts that weren’t Lily. Sirius remembered _something_ but it skittered around the edges of his memories where he couldn’t quite see.

Sirius had met him, hadn’t he? Lily had been working at that school, the Muggle one with the funny name. Sex Road? Come Bridge? They had been trying to create _something_—no, not create. Make smaller. They were trying to make something smaller, more portable, so that it could be carried around. James had been allowed to help for a while, but Lily had to supervise, and Sirius wasn’t allowed, because what they were using was Muggle tech that was reactive to magic. Sirius had more of the Black magical traits—wild and emotive—that James had. The device might have… It might have… done _something_, which would have been bad, and then there would not have been a Harry-Pup, because Lily hadn’t been pregnant then.

There wouldn’t have been any Prongslet to be scared of Sirius or to not look like James.

But James had said that Harry was his heir, and that was all that mattered.

_Heir!_ Sirius remembered the rules of etiquette that had been beaten into his head! James never said _son_. He had said _heir_. Sons were born, but heirs? They could be anyone! Sirius looked at Harry, feeling as wistful and sad as Lily would sometimes look, missing his friends, both the one he could see and the one who wasn’t there. Maybe even the Muggle man that was there—Sirius had met him, right? Lily and James hung out with him sometimes, outside the lab at the sex joke school that Sirius wasn’t allowed to visit.

Sirius shook his head, hoping to shake off the fogginess in his thoughts with the motion. After he took care of the rat and the dust settled a bit, he needed to remember to tell Harry about the man from the telly. He needed to tell Harry about why he smelled weird and why there was no James to see like there was Lily.

He needed to remember.

But there had been so many dementors, and then Harry was sending him away on the hippogriff. It was so hard to think straight, which was something that he definitely wasn’t. Lily had said something once about a scale.

Maybe Harry would know about it? Was that what he had to remember to talk with Harry about?

(^^)

“What do you mean?” Harry asked, feeling a bit numb in the face of Uncle Vernon’s smug face. Even Aunt Petunia looked rather sadistically pleased about things. Harry felt like his brain had hit a brick wall in the middle of one of the tangents it liked to go one. “What do you mean that my father isn’t my father?”

“It’s all here,” Aunt Petunia said gleefully. She held up a pale blue journal that had gold millefleur embossed on it. The leather catch had been popped open and flopped with the way that Aunt Petunia was waving it. “Your _mother_ had a torrid affair with none other than _Tony Stark_. To make it even more scintillating, apparently your so-called _father_ was in on the whole thing! Apparently, there was some doubt about your paternity, so they had you tested with their freakishness. You’re a _bastard_ in addition to a _freak_!”

Aunt Petunia sounded like she did when she was sharing a juicy bit of gossip with her bridge club. Harry tried to not let the words affect him. It wasn’t like he hadn’t heard similar over the years. This wasn’t really that different from what Aunt Marge had been saying last year. It wasn’t worth letting her successfully provoke him.

Harry tried to breathe through the way that his emotions rose as he processed the idea. He had no clue how much of the forgiveness abut blowing up Aunt Marge last summer was due to Sirius breaking out and how much was that accidental magic was supposed to be forgiven. Hell, there was even the possibility that Snape had a point about fame, and Harry hadn’t been expelled because he was the Boy-Who-Lived.

It was still a lot to process all at once. All his life, he had been told that he was with the Dursleys because he had no other family. He was an orphan whose parents had died in a car accident caused by them trying to drink away the shame of having a son like him. Then Hagrid had delivered his letter, along with it the news that not only had his parents been murdered but Harry himself was famous for _not dying_.

Then just this past year, he had discovered that he had a godfather who had been thrown into prison without trial and a sort-of uncle who was a werewolf. Sirius had a good reason for never checking up on him—and regardless of anything else about the man, that had to have been his first act after escaping Azkaban—but even if Remus couldn’t have taken custody of him, he had never visited or mailed a letter. That realization had hurt, but Harry was used to that kind of pain. He was used to never being anyone’s first priority.

Had this Tony Stark even known about him? Was that the reason he didn’t take him in after his parents had died? Or had he known and didn’t care?

Harry felt like he couldn’t breathe suddenly. Everyone was always commenting on how much he looked like James Potter with just his mother’s eyes and coloring. He had thought it was weird when he hadn’t seen it himself in the Mirror of Erised or in the pictures that Hagrid had given him. He had just figured it was sentiment or wistful thinking. That was better than it being more of the same kind of thinking that had coppers following him around stores or people confusing him with the Tyson kids over on Wisteria Lane.

Who was he if he wasn’t James Potter’s son?

(^^)  
_To Be Continued_  
(^^)


	2. Dreaming

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. Feel free to back out if that’s you.  
Author’s Note: Ever want to take a character and shake sense into them because they’re not realizing the obvious? Also, really sorry about the dream sequence at the beginning of this chapter. If it’s anything o consequence, I was cursing as I was writing because I, your friendly neighborhood author, thought it was a jump back in time, too.  
Timeline Notes: Tony Stark is the same age as the Potters, with both sets of birthdays shifted to reflect that. Harry is thirteen, making Tony in his early 30s (as well as the rest of the Marauders Era characters). This specific chapter, we’re in Iron Man 3 Prelude (pre-Hong Kong scene, obviously) and in the gap between PoA and GoF. For those of y’all wanting a calendar-like date, it’s the second week of July 2011.

(^^)  
**How to Engineer a Family**  
Chapter Two: Dreaming  
(^^)

“What about you, Stark?” Yinsen asked. He had just shared that he had a wife and children in Gulmira. Tony’s heart lurched with the memory of having felt loved once, of idle dreams of a future that was never meant to be. Tony had been greedy and selfish when he had worked his way into the Potters’ bed. But the love that Lily and James had had for each other had been like the sun and when he had been with them, it had felt like he had been included as well. Like the cat that Rhodey occasionally accused of him being, Tony had basked in that warmth, so unfamiliar but longed for still.

It had been the closest that he had ever come to dreaming of a future with someone.

Then Obie had called him to an emergency in the London office, and Cambridge had scrubbed the project Tony had been working on with Lily. By the time everything had been resolved, any trace of her and James had been gone. Tony had tried to look them up a few times over the years but without success. It was like they had never existed. Even with JARVIS scanning CCTV footage, he couldn’t find them. Maybe they had been a product of his lonely mind, a fantasy that he had dreamed up.

Either way, it didn’t matter.

“No, there’s no one,” Tony admitted. Yinsen’s eyes were dark with knowledge, sharp with unspoken judgement. That was fine. It was nothing that Tony wasn’t used to, because the entire world knew that Tony Stark was not worth sticking around for and only really desirable so far as how he could be used.

Then Yinsen reached out and grabbed Tony’s arm with the same desperate fervor that he had used while he had been dying. His fingers were sure to leave bruises just as they had then.

“Are you sure, Stark? Are you absolutely certain that there’s no one? _Are you sure?_”

Then Yinsen was Jarvis, in those last few moments as the monitor gave its dying beat, and Tony felt like he was dying with it.

“You can’t just give up, poppet. You have so much to give. You just need to find the right person.”

“I don’t—”

“Oh, if your Eym could hear you say that,” Jarvis interrupted, his voice weak from the illness stealing his life. “She would have such the lecture. I knew I would love her all my life within days of meeting her, you know. My Ana, my sweet firebrand.” His smile was lopsided. “But then you know how it is to love fire, don’t you, poppet?”

“They left, Jarvis,” Tony confessed. Jarvis shook his head tiredly.

“So follow them. Be the moth this time.”

With that, Tony woke up. It was subtle enough that JARVIS didn’t immediately start his normal spiel about the weather and stock prices. He laid there listening to the brisk Yorkshire accent he had programmed into elocution matrices of JARVIS. It had been a whim but with the memory of James Potter so close to the surface, it ached. He had suppressed as much of the memory of them as he could for that very reason. He had spent years trying to forget what they had had for those few blissful months. He had succeeded for the most part, as much as anyone ever really forgets their first love.

Yet his captivity with the Ten Rings and then facing the slow march towards death that was palladium poisoning had brought it all back it seemed. It was probably just the memory of how James had talked about legacy in the same way that Yinsen had in that cave, like it was given that everyone always kept in mind what they would be leaving behind.

Hell, it might even be that bulletin that had gone out last year about how James’ best friend had escaped a prison that didn’t seem to exist where he had been imprisoned for a list of crimes that he seemed to have never been convicted of. It was always possible that both were just buried beneath layers of encryption, but even JARVIS couldn’t find a hint of a paper trail, which was either very paranoid of them or truly didn’t exist.

Tony sat up, swinging his legs off the edge of the bed. His side protested the movement in swift reminder that getting knocked around in a titanium can was not a pleasant experience. Even with Rhodey having taken over the majority of the calls for armed assistance, there were still some that needed Iron Man directly. Unfortunately, the fact Tony was taking any calls at all had effectively killed the relationship with Pepper before it could fully get off the ground.

Guess it was just his fate to be alone.

Well, who cares anyway? He had the bots and JARVIS as well as few other creations that didn’t live with him directly but tended to check in anyway. He had Rhodey, his trusted platypus, and through him, an entire clan of Rhodes who acted like Tony really was worth keeping around. Dating might not have worked out, but Tony still had Pepper as a best friend, if best friends could be personal assistants _cum_ CEOs. Either way, Pepper was still around to scold him for his poor life choices. Happy might be making noises about wanting to apply to the security position at the LA headquarters, but it wasn’t because he was finally tired of dealing with Tony so much as he was annoyed with people saying that he was a joke as a bodyguard for a superhero.

He had something like a family, even if he did built half of it himself and then assembled the rest. What was the point of being an engineer if one didn’t build their own family?

Maybe… Maybe there were a few more pieces out there to be assembled.

“JARVIS,” Tony started, before stopping. It had been—what?—fourteen years? Nearly fifteen? It was likely that Lily and James didn’t even remember him. What right did he have to intrude on their lives now, if he even found them? JARVIS continued to silently wait for Tony’s instructions. “Never mind, bud. It was a stupid idea.”

“Sir?”

“Do you think Pep will let me try an experiment with the new Stark Tower?” Tony asked to deflect away how he had nearly requested another run at finding the Potters, the _right ones_ because that surname was a freakishly common one in the UK, especially Yorkshire. “I’ve got this idea for how to make an ARC reactor that is actually cheap enough for public use but still big enough to meet the demands of a Manhattan city block.”

“You could always ask Ms. Potts when you see her for the board meeting today?”

And that was that.

(^^)

Harry often dreamed of flying. Even before finding out that magic was real, even before seeing a broom for the first time, he had dreamed of what it would be like to be able to just fly away from everything. Then he had joined the wizarding world and had learned to really fly. Flying was freedom, everything he had ever dreamed it was. He had heard the jokes after he had joined the Quidditch team and had the perfect excuse to just keep doing it on a regular basis. If everyone believed his frequent escapes to take his broom out were because he was as big a broom-head as Oliver Wood, then it just made a good cover.

Living with the Dursleys, Harry had certainly learned the value of a good cover story.

It still seemed strange to be flying when he couldn’t control the details. It was really strange to be going anywhere that required a plane with the Dursleys. But then the week since he had returned from Hogwarts had been strange in itself, so why not add a _family outing_ to New York City on top of it? Usually, Harry was left Mrs. Figg, the old lady who lived a few blocks over, whenever the Dursleys decided to go on holiday. It wasn’t that bad, even if her house smelled strongly of cabbage and cat litter. This time, the Dursleys had elected to make the costly decision to drag Harry along with them on their holiday.

Honestly, he wasn’t surprised that they had decided that, given the amount of secrecy that they lived in for the past few years. Better to keep him by their sides to mitigate any potential damage he would do to their reputations than leave him behind to potentially contact his fellow _freaks_. Telling them about Sirius had also been a bad idea, even if he had only intended to barter the implied threat for slightly better treatment.

Sometimes he wondered what it would be like to live with someone where he didn’t have to worry about keeping a cover story or figuring out ways to sneak enough food to feed both himself and Hedwig. But ultimately, wishing for that was the same tired dream that it had been when he was six and realized that no one was ever going to believe he wasn’t cheating on his tests (as he wasn’t allowed to do any homework), so it was better to just give the teachers what they expected while keeping his extra reading a secret.

At least they had let Harry send Hedwig to the Weasleys before they left, even if the idea of being without any kind of communication with his friends made him twitchy. It couldn’t really be helped. Hedwig would be safe with Ron for however long this trip lasted. It was probably better than seeing her locked in her cage long term again, which is what Uncle Vernon had threatened if she had come with them. Not for the first time, Harry wondered if he should have argued when Hagrid had declared his intention to buy him an animal back on that first shopping trip. Hedwig didn’t deserve to be treated like she was when they were at the Dursleys’.

On the other side of the cabin, Harry can hear Dudley complaining about being bored. Thankfully, trapped like sardines as they were, there was no way for Dudley to strike up a game of Harry Hunting, like he normally did when bored. With the Dursleys sitting as far away from Harry as they could be without being promoted to the next class section, they also couldn’t see Harry reading the book he had smuggled into his carry-on bag. He had gotten it (along with a few others) from the secondhand bookshop down the road from the Leaky Cauldron while he had stayed there last summer. During the school year, there wasn’t typically time to sneak more reading than he needed for his magical studies, and in the Muggle world, it wasn’t safe to read magical texts.

It was barely safe to be reading a book on the X-gene and the impact of mutants on society in public, too, but the idea was fascinating to Harry. If science could explain how mutations happened, then it could probably explain why magic happened or even why it _didn’t_. Harry couldn’t help thinking, especially as he worked his way through Dr. Xavier’s book, that magic had to be something like a widespread mutation. Reading kept his thoughts from obsessing over the oddity of flying under someone else’s direction or the information that Aunt Petunia been gleefully rubbing in his face since he had arrived home.

Honestly, Harry didn’t want to think about what it meant that he had a living parent. It wasn’t like it even mattered. Whatever relationship Tony Stark had with his mother and Dad, it hadn’t lasted. Not to mention that they had either decided to not tell him about Harry or had told him and he hadn’t been interested in having a kid. So it wasn’t like Harry could send off a letter or try to call him and expect someone to rescue him. He was too old to believe that kind of fairy tale.

This was the real world. Magic may be real, but it didn’t solve anything. In fact, all it did was cause even more problems. Superheroes might also be a thing, but they fought terrorists or weird robot things from outer space. They didn’t bother with kids whose family didn’t like them much. They had bigger problems than that.

_Tony Stark_ had bigger issues than that, even if he was mostly retired from Stark Industries now. Harry had looked him up on the old laptop that Dudley had discarded into the junk piles in his second bedroom (which was nominally Harry’s, even if he wasn’t allowed to really call it that). Tony Stark was _personally_ leading the charge into clean energy and other green initiatives, as well as overseeing the removal of landmines on a large scale in past warzones. All that while having what was a star (according to all the science types on the internet) embedded in his chest, which had to hurt. It had to interfere with his ability to breathe at the very least.

He didn’t need Harry messing up his life. The world didn’t need Harry messing up Tony Stark’s life either. That was even before considering anything about Hogwarts and the magical world. Why would anyone want a freak as a family member?

Harry sighed and refocused on his book. He didn’t need the ache of unfulfilled hope. His life was his life and that was that.

(^^)  
To Be Continued  
(^^)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Submitting Info:  
Stacked with: Hogwarts (Term 11); MC4A  
Individual Challenges: Iron Son; Logical Crossing; Black Ribbon; Black Ribbon Redux; Gryffindor MC; Sett to Destroy; Summer Vacation; Seeds; Shipmas; Tissue Warning; Golden Times; The First Phase; New Fandom Smell [MCU] (Y); Old Shoes [Harry Potter]; Team Logic; Marvelous Cinema; Lovely Triangle; Advice from the Mug; Ethnic & Present; Neurodivergent; Quiet Time; Letter of the Day; Rian-Russo Inversion; Flags & Ribbons; Laws; Short Jog; Yellow Ribbon (Y); Yellow Ribbon Redux (Y); The Real MC  
House: Hufflepuff  
Assignment No.: Term 11 – Assignment 04  
Subject (Task No.): n/a  
Other Hogwarts Challenges: Insane Prompt Challenge [538] (“With or Without You” – U2); 365 [58] (Mutation); Mythology Club (Helpless emotion)  
Space Address (Prompt): Fa Bingo [3D] (Ghost/Specter)  
Representation(s): James/Lily/Tony (past); JARVIS; Autistic Tony Stark; Autistic Harry Potter  
Bonus Challenges: Casper’s House; Hot Apple; Second Verse (Persistence Still; Found Family; Nontraditional; Spinning Plates; Unwanted Advice; Three’s Company; Lovely Coconuts; Grease Monkey; Most Human Bean); Chorus (Wabi Sabi; Machismo; Peddling Pots; Mouth of Babes; Tomorrow’s Shade; Larger than Life; Unicorn; Abandoned Ship)  
Tertiary Bonus Challenges: T3 (Thimble); SN (Rail; Negate); LiCK (Poppy; Amaranth); FR (n/a); O3 (Orator; Oust); TY (Enfant)  
Word Count: 2265


	3. Plans

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Legal Disclaimer: I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said whoever that owns the source material. Look, I’m just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn’t going to get you anything but tears.  
Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. Feel free to back out if need be.  
Author’s Note: Long time, right? How about a slightly longer chapter as an apology?

(^^)  
**How to Engineer a Family**  
Chapter 03: Plans  
(^^)

Harry should have known that traveling with the Dursleys would not be any kind of improvement on their behavior. He also should not have been surprised that they didn’t leave him in their suite while they went around New York. A part of him had actually thought that the Dursleys wouldn’t have been willing to pay all the ticket fees that it would take to include him in the tourist trap activities that were likely on the itinerary. After all, he wasn’t ten anymore, and it wasn’t like they had to be concern about him potentially tainting their home by being the only one in it.

It wasn’t until Uncle Vernon told the cab driver to take them to the new Stark Tower that Harry truly had a grasp on why Aunt Petunia had the satisfied smirk on her face while they had eaten breakfast at the hotel. The pettiness of it stung like sweat dripping into a cut. The single muffin and orange juice he had been allowed to take from the free breakfast buffet refused to settle right in his stomach from the moment they had joined the queue for the free tour of the building. He tried not to think about whether he was worried that he would catch a glimpse of the man that was biologically his father or if he wouldn’t.

Even worse than that issue was seeing all the cutting-edge science and not being able to ask any of the questions burning through his mind. His fingers itched to explore, to trace the smooth lines of numbers and coding while comparing them to what he had read over the years. Catching glimpses of designs with different kinds of flaws or things that while not_ flaws_ could still be improved was a special kind of torture. It reminded him of seeing the same kind of things in Hermione’s work or in potion recipes. Neither Hermione nor Snape would appreciate having Harry say anything about his insights. His solution at Hogwarts would have been to write out the corrects in the journal he had for just that, but there was no way the Dursleys wouldn’t notice him pulling it from his satchel, let alone writing in it.

He chewed on his tongue to give himself some distraction from it all.

He almost missed Aunt Petunia handing Uncle Vernon a haunting familiar blue journel. The golden flowers embossed on its cover flashed as Uncle Vernon tucked it into his suit jacket. Then he grabbed Harry right above his elbow and dragged him away from their tour group. Used to being manhandled like this, Harry knew better than to protest the rough treatment. Instead, he ducked his head and tucked his other arm in to avoid bumping into anything.

Uncle Vernon pulled him into an elevator just as a group of construction workers left it. As soon as the doors closed, he shoved Harry at the corner farthest from buttons. That was fine. Harry didn’t want to stay within arm distance anyway, not that the elevator really had a lot of ways to get completely out of reach with the doors shut. Not being able to escape if needed made him feel sick as Uncle Vernon jabbed the button for the top floor impatiently.

The elevator still didn’t move. Nor did it respond to the button being held down for increasing lengths of time. Harry huddled in the corner, trying to make himself as small as possible as Uncle Vernon darkened with the flush of his growing rage. Harry hadn’t seen that particular shade of purple since the zoo trip for Dudley’s eleventh birthday.

There had been a few times that Harry had been certain that Uncle Vernon was finally going to go beyond merely beating him. After nearly dying at Hogwarts so many times, the prospect of doing so didn’t frighten Harry as much as it probably should. He had to bite back hysterical laughter at the idea of dying right then, actually. Wouldn’t it be the height of irony that he survived death traps, Dark Lords, and dementors only to die in a very nonmagical way? Wouldn’t it be fitting that he died in a building owned by the parent he had always wished for but couldn’t have?

Luckily, just when Uncle Vernon had turned towards him with his hand reaching for Harry’s neck, the elevator lurched into motion. The initial start caused Uncle Vernon to lose his balance and fall backwards into the wall. Harry slumped a bit in his corner as relief flooded him. It was a bit strange that there was even a jerk like that at all, as all the elevators so far had been very smooth, but maybe whatever had kept the elevator from responding in the first place had made created it. The moving stairs at Hogwarts did that sometimes, if a professor had frozen it temporarily.

Harry was just thankful that it had happened.

The elevator opens into a carpeted foyer that is empty except for a simple desk and a handful of equally simple benches. The benches are upholstered with real leather that had been dyed a rich plum that looked stately with the chrome that made up the rest of it. Standing next to the desk was a brunette wearing a pale blue blouse and black pencil skirt. On her feet were navy heels that looked painful to be standing while wearing, never mind walking. Harry couldn’t repress a wince of sympathy.

“May I help you?” the brunette asked. One of her hands slid under the edge of her desk for just a moment before she turned to face them completely. Harry hunched his shoulders and moved to stand next to one of the benches nearest the elevator. He just knew that they weren’t supposed to be here, no matter how they had actually achieved it. “I’m afraid Ms. Potts is currently unavailable.”

“That’s fine,” Uncle Vernon dismissed as he marched up to the desk. Harry had to give the woman credit for maintaining her politely unimpressed look in the face of Uncle Vernon’s approach. “I’m here to see Tony Stark.”

“I see,” she replied. Her eyes cut to Harry before dismissing him. “Do you have an appointment, Mister…?”

“Dursley,” Uncle Vernon answered gruffly, “and I don’t have an appointment—not for lack of trying. Stark’s been dodging me for months! Now get him here straight away or he’ll see why he can’t just duck his responsibilities!”

“Mr. Dursley, you must understand that Mr. Stark is a very busy man—”

“And you think I’m NOT?” Uncle Vernon yelled. “I had to take time off work to get here! I had to travel to an entirely different country!”

Harry’s mouth went dry as he noticed his uncle beginning to flush with temper. Careful not to draw attention to himself, he moved around the edge of foyer to get closer to the adults. He didn’t think that his uncle would be stupid enough to lash out like he normally did towards Harry, but he couldn’t really let the risk just stand. The woman wasn’t showing any sign that she recognized the growing danger.

“Perhaps you should take a seat, Mr. Dursley,” the woman suggested. “I can check Mr. Stark’s calendar for any openings in the near future.”

“You will get Stark here within short order,” Uncle Vernon ordered. “None of this ‘check his calendar’ tripe. I will not be put off! You get him here!”

“Perhaps if you told me what this concerned—”

“It’s a private matter!”

At that moment, one of the elevators in the bank dinged with a new arrival. Uncle Vernon turned towards it, momentarily distracted. A man in a suit exited calmly but with obvious purpose. What felt like gravel settled in Harry’s gut at the sight of the portly man. There was no way the man would be able to stop Uncle Vernon at all, let alone before he could hurt the receptionist.

Harry moved at the same time that Uncle Vernon turned and swung a meaty fist at the woman. He barely managed to place himself in the way of the blow in time. Pain exploded in his left cheekbone, whiting out his vision and making his ears ring. But no amount of ringing could cover his uncle’s enraged bellows as small hands gripped Harry’s arms and pulled him farther away.

“Are you hurt?” Harry asked. Or at least he tried to, but the words felt smeared together. A faint coppery taste was flooding his mouth. That was just great, because of course he needed a cut in his mouth or a loosen tooth, both of which took forever to heal and were likely to get infected and take even longer. He tried to focus on the woman, but she was nothing but a blur.

Did he lose his glasses somewhere?

“I’m just fine, honey,” she answered. She sounded like she was disapproving of the question. That was fine. Harry was used to everyone disapproving of him. “It’s you that I’m worried about. He got you really good.”

“I’m fine,” Harry muttered, even though it felt like his cheek was numb and there were black spots in the blurs that he could see. “I’m fine.”

“Uh-huh, sure,” she agreed before raising her voice. “Happy, add medical services to your call list. Maybe an ambulance?”

“I’m fine,” Harry repeated, trying to reassure her. It might have worked better if the black spots hadn’t picked that moment to swamp him completely.

(^^)

“I’m just saying that since I’m not CEO,” Tony ranted as he worked his way through the stack of paperwork that Pepper had brought him, “I shouldn’t still be required to sign all this. I’m just the owner and major stockholder. Shouldn’t I be able to just hide away in the lab or something?”

“Most of this paperwork is actually about patents,” Pepper answered without looking up from either her Pad Thai noodles or her ever-present tablet. “JARVIS can do many things with your projects, but the patent office still requires paper copies with physical signatures. As CEO, I am invested in being able to use as much as possible of what you come up with while you live your dream of being a lab hermit.”

“Are you…are you conspiring with my AI?” Tony asked in mock surprise. Pepper hummed around a bite of noodles. JARVIS echoed the tone through his speakers. Tony gasped dramatically. “You are! The betrayal! The sneaky sneaking! What is next? The bots? Are you going to take all my children?”

“I wouldn’t dream of trying to turn the bots.” Pepper smirked at him. “I love my shoes too much to risk them with the bots’ antics. Sign your paperwork so I can sell your inventions to the world.”

“I feel so used,” Tony whined. He didn’t stop his signing. “Say, did you get a chance to read over my proposal to move the tower to an ARC reactor?”

“It does have merit,” she started, “but after the explosion of the previous one, I think the Manhattan zoning commission may be hesitant to have one right in the middle of the borough.”

“That’s fair,” he agreed after a moment of reflection. No matter how stable the reactor design was, now that they had seen the explosive radius of one, putting a reactor anywhere in the city was just asking for unnecessary collateral damage. However, the renovations needed to place the reactor in an isolated but still accessible location would far exceed what could be justified for only one building. There was another option, of course. “Do you think we could convince them to let us provide power for the entire district?”

There was a beat of silence before Pepper slowly raised her head.

“You want to put the entirety of Turtle Bay on ARC power?”

“I was actually thinking of trying for the entirety of Midtown, but we can start with Turtle Bay and add in neighborhoods as the tie-ins get done.” Tony let the numbers he had long since memorized fill his head even as he continued to rattle off his plan. “I mean a single reactor the size of the one that had been powering the LA campus should be able to handle a good chunk of South Manhattan. It would have been all, but hey, Times Square and Madison Square Gardens are total power sucks, and that’s before getting into the individual locations that are weirding the grid. If we double the size or plant multiples along the bed of the East River, we should be able to systematically move the entire borough and a good chunk of Queens and the Bronx as well. Not to mention if we start doing the same in the Hudson—but we already have good reason to start doing it in Queens because the Expo grounds are in Flushing.”

“You aren’t kidding.”

“No,” Tony agreed cautiously, uncertain with how surprised Pepper sounded. “The world needs clean energy. We have the technology and the influence to make it happen. New Yorkers also won’t hesitate to tell us to get fucked if there’s issues with the service.”

“Tony, this is crazy—”

“Yes, I know it’s crazy, but you know what else was crazy?” He stood up, unable to stay still as frustration overcame him. Out of habit, he doubled his words with sign, letting the size of the gestures punctuate his points. “Identical insurance packages from top to bottom. Making sure all employees are capable of focusing on their job rather than if they have enough hours to afford basic necessities. Having employees doing only a reasonable amount for one person instead twelve. _Paid and insured internships_. We specialize in crazy, Pep!”

“I know, but other multi-billion-dollar companies don’t—”

“I don’t care,” Tony interrupted, because he really didn’t care what ways those other companies kept their profits up—actually, wait, he _did_. “Actually, you know what? Fuck those guys. Musk and Bozos can use pineapples for flesh lights for all I care. Richards has better ideas than both of them combined—”

“I am sorry to interrupt,” JARVIS said, “but there is a situation developing on the executive floor that I believe requires Sir’s personal attention. Mr. Hogan has already called emergency services.”

“Oh, god,” Pepper said as she abandoned her lunch and hurried towards the elevator with Tony right behind her. “Is Veronica okay? What happened?”

“Ms. Brandt is fine. Her rescuer is not. Mr. Hogan has since subdued their attacker, who is most insistent on discussing a personal matter with Sir.” There was a pause as the elevator began descending the few floors necessary. “I have filtered 163 increasingly irate emails from this individual over the past six months.”

“What? Why am I just hearing about this now, J?”

“I had no reason to substantiate his claims until he accessed your personal elevator approximately fifteen minutes ago.”

“What claim was that?”

JARVIS opened the elevator doors instead of answering. The foyer of the executive floor was filled with the inarticulate yelling of the fattest man that Tony had ever seen squeezed into a business suit. Pepper’s personal assistant (since Rushmanoff had scurried back to SHIELD after dumping that bullshit report) looked like the only thing stopping her from putting her heel through the man was Happy standing between them. Despite all that chaos, Tony’s gaze locked on the figure laid out by Veronica’s desk.

A hundred years (let alone only fifteen) wouldn’t be enough to make him not recognize the distinct stamp of Lily Potter on that slack face.

“Oh,” Tony whispered as he leaned against the elevator wall.

“Oh, indeed, Sir.”

(^^)  
_To Be Continued_  
(^^)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Submitting Info:  
Stacked with: Hogwarts (Term 12); MC4A (WiB; TY; DP; Share; T3; SN; LiCK; FR; O3; SHoE; AD; FPC; BAON; ToS; StL; SIN; NC; LL; PP; SoC; FF; NCR; RC; Star; Fence; ER; RoB; MLG; Rum; Cluster; VV; MT; WF)  
Individual Challenges: Iron Son; Logical Crossing; Feast; Gryffindor MC; Sett to Destroy; Summer Vacation; Seeds; No Proof; Obstinate, Headstrong Girl (Y); Golden Times; The First Phase; New Fandom Smell; Old Shoes; Marvelous Cinema; Themes & Things A [Love]; Themes & Things B [Protection]; Lovely Triangle; Advice from the Mug; Ethnic & Present; Neurodivergent (x2); Quiet Time (x2); Letter of the Day (x2); Rian-Russo Inversion; Flags & Ribbons; Laws; Hold the Mayo; Short Jog; Yellow Ribbon (Y); Yellow Ribbon Redux; The Real MC; Two Cakes!; Green Ribbon  
House: Hufflepuff  
Assignment No.: Term 12 – Assignment 3  
Subject (Task No.): n/a  
Other Hogwarts Challenges: Insane Prompt Challenge [769] (Superhero AU); 365 [172] (Journal)  
Other MC4A Challenges: Wi Bingo [3C] (Bell)  
Representation(s): James Potter/Lily Evans/Tony Stark (past); Autistic & Asexual Tony Stark; Autistic & Black Harry Potter; BAMF Pepper Potts; BAMF Veronica Brandt (OC)  
Bonus Challenges: Fruit Fly; Gingersnap; Second Verse (Ladylike; Not a Lamp; Persistence Still; White Dress; Found Family; Nontraditional; Zucchini Bread; Middle Name; Spinning Plates; Unwanted Advice; Lovely Coconuts; Grease Monkey; Lyre Liar; Most Human Bean; Muck & Slime; Casper’s House; Corvid Brain; Hot Apple; Shiver & Shake; Under the Bridge; Lettuce Hold Hands); Chorus (Pear-Shaped; Wabi Sabi; Bee Haven; Machismo; Rediscovery; Mouth of Babes; Tomorrow’s Shade; Larger than Life; Unicorn; Abandoned Ship; Head of Perseus; In the Trench; Surprise!; Turtle-Duck; Sitting Hummingbird; Some Beach; Getting On; Hot Stuff)  
Tertiary Bonus Challenges: T3 (Tether); SN (Rail; Spare); LiCK (Poppy; Amaranth; Narcissus; Yarrow); FR (Liberation); O3 (Orator; Ox); TY (Ntaiv; Avasa; Kulonbozo; Enfant); SHoE (Oblique); DP (Yearn); AD (Association; Amphibian)  
Word Count: 2616

**Author's Note:**

> Submitting Info:  
Stacked with: Hogwarts (Term 11); MC4A  
Individual Challenges: Yellow Ribbon (Y); Yellow Ribbon Redux (Y); Click Bait It; Short Jog; Letter of the Day; Flags & Ribbons; Rian-Russo Inversion; True Colours; Quiet Time; Neurodivergent; Ethnic & Present; Advice from the Mug; Lovely Triangle; Feeling So Logical [Criminal]; Themes & Things A [Love]; Themes & Things B [Protection]; Marvelous Cinema; Team Logic; Old Shoes [HP]; New Fandom Smell [MCU]; Golden Times; The First Phase; Seeds; Gryffindor MC (x3); Bow Before the Blacks; Sett to Destroy; More than England; Iron Son  
House: Hufflepuff  
Assignment No.: Term 11 – Assignment 02  
Subject (Task No.): Game Development (Task #1: Write about someone whose true identity is hidden from them.)  
Other Hogwarts Challenges: Pinata [Medium] (Friendship); Insane Prompt Challenge [44] (Millefleur); 365 [02] (Provoke); Galleon Club (elegant)  
Space Address (Prompt): Su Bingo [2D] (Dust)  
Representation(s): Lily Evans/James Potter/Tony Stark; Bisexual Sirius Black; Remus Lupin; Petunia Dursley  
Bonus Challenges: Abandoned Ship; Surprise!; Muck & Slime; Second Verse (Lovely Coconuts; Three’s Company; Unwanted Advice; Spinning Plates; Zucchini Bread; Nontraditional; Persistence Still; Not a Lamp; Ladylike); Chorus (Wind Beneath; Creature Feature; Unicorn; Larger than Life; A Long Dog; Tomorrow’s Shade; Mouth of Babes; Rediscovery; Peddling Pots; Machismo; Wabi Sabi)  
Tertiary Bonus Challenges: T3 (Toad); SN (Rail; Negate); LiCK (Poppy; Narcissus; Yarrow); O3 (Orator; Oust); TY (Enfant)  
Word Count: 2067


End file.
